News Releases

Oct 26, 2005
MEREDITH SPECIAL INTEREST PUBLICATIONS PREMIERES REAL+LIFE DECORATING

New SIP Focuses on Practical Design and Decorating Advice for "Everyday Consumer"

DES MOINES, IA (October 26, 2005)- If you're among the millions of consumers who want to decorate your home or apartment but have trouble knowing if your favorite couch is a keeper or a clunker, real+life decorating, a new magazine from Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), can help you overcome your design phobia.

The title, developed by the publishers of such well-known magazines as Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, and Country Home, was created "to address the fact that people live in homes that have pets, pizza, and probably some painting disasters," says Jill Waage, editor, real+life decorating,. "We wanted to create a magazine that helps consumers, especially younger women in their late twenties and early thirties, get a handle on the real basics of design and decorating so that they can have the confidence to create a space that reflects their emerging style."

Waage says that unlike other design magazines, real+life decorating, will guide younger consumers through the sometime tricky waters of design and decorating without intimidating them. "When you look at the designs in magazines aimed at more sophisticated tastes and larger budgets, it can be rather overwhelming,"states Waage. "We expect that the readers of this magazine are like first time skiers who want get out and enjoy the slopes, but aren't really ready for the giant slalom."

To help readers overcome their design and decorating fears, real+life decorating will feature useful and practical tips, as well as before-and-after photography, to help readers truly master their decorating goals. The premier issue will cover everything from creating the perfect space for an office that also happens to be your apartment to simple decorating and storage ideas for homes with busy lives and busy kids to how to hang a picture correctly over your living room sofa.

Among the articles in the premiere issue include:

  • Secrets from Apartment C - HGTV celebrity Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan helps a young professional New Yorker how to add stylish storage and design solutions to a living room which also happens to be her home office.
  • Clutter Control - Defying accepted logic, Jeni and Tom Wright cleverly created a kid-friendly living room that also allows them a conversation area for entertaining. Their unique tips and insights will help any young couple with small children see that toys and stylish furniture can co-exist.
  • Lesson: Rugs - You would think it would be easy to choose a rug. Not so fast. How much do you know about weave and fiber? What's the best size to buy? real+life decorating experts give you simple tips you'll need to get the right rug.
  • Real Room Rescue - For once a before-and-after makeover for an apartment that doesn't require a high-end designer budget. Real+life decorating editors bring new zest to this space by simply re-arranging the furniture, editing out a few pieces, adding some inexpensive accessories, and picking a color scheme that works.
  • Real Problems/Real Solutions - Design expert Laurie Hickson Smith from Trading Spaces offers simple solutions for overcoming common decorating dilemmas.
  • New Look, Same Stuff- If there's one thing you can learn from a military family, it's how to move and make your new home look different than the one before, without breaking your budget. This piece explores how to meet the demands of frequent moves and changing tastes.

In addition, the premiere issue will feature stories on everything from how to convert a family cabin into a modern, colorful family home to multiple ways to create a floor plan that allows you to have good traffic flow and comfortable conversation areas.

"We believe that real+life decorating will fill the need so many young renters and homeowners have for simple, easy to understand instructions for creating a stylish and affordable space," states Waage.

Real+life decorating is on newsstands now and retails for $4.99.

###

About Meredith Corporation
Meredith (www.meredith.com) is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media. The Meredith Publishing Group features 24 subscription magazines - including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, Child, Fitness, Family Circle and American Baby - and approximately 150 special interest publications. Meredith owns or operates 14 television stations, including properties in top-25 markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland, and an AM radio station.

Meredith has approximately 350 books in print and has established marketing relationships with some of America's leading companies including The Home Depot, DIRECTV, DaimlerChrysler, Wal-Mart and Carnival Cruise Lines. Meredith's consumer database, which contains approximately 80 million names, is one of the largest domestic databases among media companies and enables magazine and television advertisers to target marketing campaigns precisely. Additionally, Meredith has an extensive Internet presence that includes 32 Web sites and strategic alliances with leading Internet destinations.